This invention relates to external motor vehicle lights, and more particularly to a ring of light emitting diodes that surround an external vehicle lamp to provide supplemental light and/or to provide light when the external vehicle lamp fails.
Headlight failures pose a serious danger on the road. Portions of the road will not be adequately visualized when a headlight fails. Other drivers may assume the single headlight indicates a motorcycle and not provide enough clearance. Many new vehicles have a dashboard indicator that warns the driver when a bulb has failed. When a taillight fails, following drivers pose a danger and the police have an easy target. U.S. Pat. No. 6,281,631 issued Aug. 28, 2001 to Schaffer et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,680,098 issued Oct. 21, 1997 to Bejster teach using an existing bulb serving a first function to assume the function of a second bulb that has failed. These can provide the driver with some protection until the bulb is replaced. They may deprive the vehicle of the first function. It would be useful to have a simple inexpensive system that could be easily retrofitted to provide a light source that would automatically emit light from the same housing as the failed bulb in the event of bulb failure.
It is accordingly an object of the invention to provide a plurality of light emitting diodes that surround the light bulb and that automatically emit light in the event of the failure of the bulb. The ring of diodes assembly may be a part of the bulb socket, or it can be retrofitted to an existing socket. By positioning the emitters within the bulb housing, the emitted light may reflect in the same way by the reflector in the housing, and may be easily installed. The light emitting diodes may be selected to emit a similar amount and color of light as the failed bulb did. The circuit providing power to the diodes may employ various means for sensing when the bulb has failed, such as those disclosed in the ""098 and ""631 patents, for example.